Boiler cleaner



C. M. GARLAND.

BOILER CLEANER.

APPLICATION man MAY8. m9.

Patented May 16, 1922.

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Ethic M424 C. M. GARLAND.

BOILER CLEANER.

APPLICATION F ILED MAY 8. 1919. I 1,416,552. Patented M y 16,1922.

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UNITED STATES CLAUDE M. GARLAND, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

BOILER CLEANER.

Original application filed February 7, 1916, Serial No. 76,811.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CLAUDE M. GARLAND, a citizen of the United States of Ameriei. residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Boiler Cleaners, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

The invention relates to the art of cleaning boilers and similar apparatus, and it is the object of the invention to more eliec tively remove the soot or other deposits from the heating surface to maintain a higher degree of eiliciency during operation.

At the present time soot blowers are used for this purpose and consist of steam or air nozzles adapted to discharge a jet of steam or air upon the surfaces to be cleaned. These nozzles are commonly connected to branch lines which connect with a header so that steam may be admitted to different points by opening a valve placed in the branch between the header and the nozzle. These valves as now used are operated by hand. Common practice is to admit steam through each branch for a period of about five minutes two or three times a day.

Theobject of all soot blowers is to remove the accumulation of solid matter which deposits from the gases upon the tubes, thereby increasing the resistance to heat flow from the gases to the medium within the tubes and thereby decreasing the eiiiciency of the heating process. When a soot blower is used intermittently as above described the solid matter which deposits during the eight or ten hours between the periods of blowing has time to bake on the tube and is therefore much more difficult to remove and ordinarily cannotall be removed by the blowing process, but must be scraped ofi. Furthermore I have found by experiment in the .case of water tube boilers that the soot which deposits on the outside of the tubes in a period of two hours is sufficient in many cases to decrease the efficiency of the boiler over three per cent. For example in a certain boiler the temperature of the flue gases when operating under uniform conditions immediately after blowing the tubes was 450 F. Two hours after blowing, due to the accumulation of soot on the external wall of the tubes, the temperature had risen to Specification of Letters Patent.

Divided and this application filed May 8, 1919,

an electric circuit Patented May 16, 1922.

Renewed July 14, 1920, Serial No.

Serial No. 295,659.

5253? F., thus increasing the loss due to inelhcient soot blowing over three per cent.

The present invention overcomes the above described difliculties by substituting for the occasional or irregular blowing a periodic blowing at regular intervals. Furthermore instead of long continued blowing the interval during which the steam or other blowin medium is discharged is relatively short 'lhus instead of the removal of thick de posits of soot the boiler surface is maintained relatively clean at all times, while the amount of steam required for the cleanin is no greater than that which would be neb es sary for the occasional cleaning. he invention therefore consists in 7 the novel process or method of cleaning as hereinafter set forth. My improved method may be carried out in various types of apparatus, but I shall specifically describe one construction. which is illustrated in the drawings, in which Figure l is a side elevation and Figure 2 is a plan view of a water tube boiler to which my soot blower apparatus has been attached;

Figure 3 is a cross-section; 4

Figures 4- and 5 are respectively an elevation and cross-section of the controllin switch; a

F igure 6 is a diagram of the electrical apparatus;

Figure 7 is a cross-section; and

Figure is a side elevation of a modified form of apparatus.

In these figures like numerals refer to like parts. 2-3 indicates the drums of the boiler, 2 the rear header and 2 the front header, in which the tubes 1 are exianded in the ordinary manner. (3 indicates .the side walls while 7 indicates the furnace and 5 the outlet for the flue gases. 8 are the bafl'les which direct the gases through the tubes 1. t is the nozzle for the discharge of steam from the boilers. 9 is a steam main supplied with steam under boiler pressure which is connected at some point to the steam distribution system about the plant. l2, l2 and 12 are branch pipes from the main 9. 10, 10 and 10 are quick opening steam valves of the solenoid type in which the valve is held on its seat by a spring and which is lifted against the force of the spring through a solenoid when is closed. When the circuit is broken the spring again seats the valve. The valves are common to the art and require no further description. To the branches 12, 12' and 12 are connected the nozzle pipes 16 through the elbows 13 and the stuliing boxes 141. 17 are nozzles in the pipes which are adapted to discharge steam into the bank of tubes 1. The nozzle pipes 16 have sprocket wheels 15 rigidly attached to them. The nozzle pipes 16 are supported rotatably in the stufling boxes .14; and in the bearings 3 1, the latter being mounted in the side wall 0.

The nozzle pipes 16 are rotated by the sprockets 15 which are driven by the chains 11, which. are in turn driven by the sprockets 18 rigidly mounted on the shaft 19, which is mounted in the bearings 20 and adapted to be rotated continuously by a variable speed motor 23 which is mounted on the wall 21 and drives through the gears 22.

(in the shaft 19 are rigidly mounted contact arms 25, and 2, an enlarged section of one of these is shown in Figure 5. The contact arms are provided with contact pieces slidably mounted and held against the contact plates 2 1, 2 1 and 24 by springs 27. ()n the wall 21 are mounted brackets 29 which support the contact plates as, 24 and 24 about the shaft 19 and adjacent the contact arms 25, 25 and 25". The contact plates consist of the insulating disks 4-0 which are preferably of slate or hard rubber which are bolted to the brackets 29 by the bolts 30. 111 the disks 10 are imbedded the metal strips 31 carrying the contact points a, b, 0', d, c, f, g, and h. The strips 31 are bolted to the disks 4:0 by the bolts 38. 35 is a nut which holds the connection 36 to the electric circuit in place. l' i hen the shaft 19 revolves the contact piece 26 travels over the contact points a, b, 0, etc., but does not come in contact with the strip 31. Figure 2 shows a plan view of the assembled shaft, contact plates, etc. The Figure 4 shows a front view of a contact plate which are all identical and Figure 3 shows an enlarged section through the branch 12.

Figure 6 is a wiring diagram showing the connections for operating the solenoid valves 10, 10 and 10 through the contact plates 21, 2% and 24 through the Contact arms 25, 25 and 25 By the closing of the switch 4-3 connection is made with a source of electrical energy which passes along one side of the circuit 412 and connects through the lines 416, 46' and 16 to the shaft 19. The lines 16, 46 and 16 are shown to complete the diagrammatic arrangement, as only one connection to the shaft is necessary, the shaft 19 and the three contact arms form one and the same circuit. The side ofthe circuit 41 connects to the solenoids 10, 10 and 10 andpasses through these to the lines 4 1, 1 1 and 44 respectively. These lines connect to the strip 31 of the contact plates 2st, 241 and 2 1 respectively. The shaft 19 rotates in a counter clockwise direction and as the arm 25 touches the contact point a on the contact plate 2 1 the electric circuit is closed and the solenoid 1.0 lifts the valve off of its seat, and as the arm passes oil of the contact point a on its way to b the circuit is broken and the valve seats itself by the action of the spring, not shown. The contact arm 25 is set a little behind the contact arm 25 so that the solenoid 10 operates a few seconds after the solenoid 10 is operated. The arm 25 is set a little behind the arm 25 so that the solenoid 10 operates a few seconds after the solenoid 10'. This arrangement is usedso that the branch 12 will blow first, and before the soot has time to settle itself on the tubes 1, blown by the branch 12, the solenoid 10 operates to blow the tubes covered by 12, and before the soot from the tubes covered by 12 and 12 has time to settle on the tubes covered by 12 the solenoid 10 operates to blow these tubes and the soot from all the tubes passes out through the uptake 5 with he flue gases.

Eight contact points a, b, 0, etc, are arranged on each contact plate 2 1, 2a and 2 1 and these contact points are arranged sothat for each revolution of the nozzle pipes 16 each branch 12, 12 and 12 blows in eight different positions marked a, o, c, d, e, g and h on Figure 1. By this arrangement it will be seen that all portions of thetubes are carefully blown and that the'dust from the front end of the tubes does not have an opportunity'to settle on the rear portion: of the tubes.

The contact arms 25 are adjustably mounted on the shaft 19 so that they maybe adjusted to cause the branches 12,12 and 12 to blow in any given order of succession or all of them to blow simultaneously. A variable speed motor 23 is used to drive the shaft 19 so that any desired time interval may be obtained between the blows. For the purpose of regulating the time of the blow, that is the actual length of time that the solenoids hold the valves open, the contact pieces 26 are varied in width, also the contact points a, 7), etc. If very short quick puifsare desired, the contact piece 26 would be about of an inch thick while the contact points of, Z), etc., would be of like width. If a longer period of blow were desired contact pieces 26;; of an inch wide which would double the period of blow, or contact pieces 9; of an inch wide which would quadruplet-he time of the blow could be used.

Figure 8 shows a side elevation ofa water tube boiler which is provided with a soot blower of the stationary type in which the nozzles discharge parallel to the tubes instead of at an angle to the tubes as shown in Figure 1. My device can be equally well applied to this system of soot blowing. The steam is admitted through the main 9 and the solenoid operated valves 10, 10 and 1.0 are placed in the branches 12, 12 and 12 In this arrangement the nozzle pipes 16 are provided with nozzles 17 which are located between the tubes 1, as shown in Figure 7, which is a part section on the line 77 looking toward the branch 12. The shaft 19 rotates the arms 25, 25 and 25 which make the contacts, thereby operating the solenoids 10, 10' and 10 as previously set forth.

In order to make it possible to blow the tubes in the case of an accident to the motor or shafting switches 45, and 45 are provided for closing the circuits to the solenoids 10, 10. and 10 During normal operation the switches 45, 45 and 45 remain open. From the above description it will be seen that I have provided novel means for con tinuous removal of soot from heating surfaces. It should be understood that this specification and the accompanying drawings show typical arrangements of my apparatus. My apparatus and my improvements can be applied to any soot blowing system of the type described. It is immaterial as to the type of a boiler, the number of branches necessary or the arrangement of the branches. It is further immaterial as to the type of quick opening valve used. This may be a Valve operated through a mechanical trip or operated by a hydraulic or steam cylinder. I prefer, however, the solenoid operated type. It also would not be considered a departure from the intent of my improvements to place a quick opening valve in the main 9 and discharge through this valve to one or more branches.

WVhat I claim as my invention is 1. The method of cleaning boilers and similar apparatus which consists in automatically periodically blowing the surface thereof, and in automatically quickly opening and closing the discharge to produce puffs of relatively short duration.

2. The method of cleaning boiler parts of the accumulation of soot and like products of combustion, while preventing substantial decrease in the efficiency of the boiler between the periods of cleaning, which consists in determining the period in which the accumulation of soot deposits on the boiler parts will become materially deleterious to the efficiency of the boiler by incrustation on such parts, and then causing the delivery of a blast of steam over the boiler parts to be cleaned to forcibly remove the soot therefrom, and insuring that the delivery of the blast shall be at fixed and regular intervals less than that required for such deleterious accumulation to take place.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

CLAUDE M. GARLAND. 

